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EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros is rebooting its 1992 hit The Bodyguard, the film that paired Kevin Costner with Whitney Houston and became for its time one of the biggest global hits in studio history with a $411 million worldwide gross.
The film will be scripted by Jeremiah Friedman and Nick Palmer, whose action comedy script Family Getaway made the 2010 Black List and is a priority project at Warner Bros. Dan Lin will produce through his Lin Pictures banner, and Mark Bauch is co-producer.
Scripted by Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Mick Jackson, the original was a fairly straight ahead tale of a Secret Service agent (Costner in a Steve McQueen homage, down to his hairstyle) drafted to protect a singing diva whose life has been threatened by a stalker, then falling for her in a way he fears is a distraction from his job. The new version is similar, including the love story, but here the bodyguard will be a former Iraq war veteran who gets the job protecting the star as his first gig after leaving the Army. He discovers that the world of Twitter, Google Maps and TMZ has made access to celebrities easier than ever, making the job more difficult than ever. The goal is to take a young female singer with global appeal and give her the platform that The Bodyguard did Houston.
It becomes the second music-driven remake for the studio, which just got a commitment from Clint Eastwood to direct Beyonce. The studio is in the process of landing the male star.
Lin just wrapped Sherlock Holmes 2, and is producing with Kevin McCormick Gangster Squad, which Ruben Fleischer will direct. He is also developing the LEGO Movie, which has Phil Lord and Christopher Miller attached to direct. The scribes are repped by UTA and Mosaic.
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THANK GOD!!! i’ve been waiting for someone to finally pay homage to this piece of cinematic genius! I really hope they give miss whitney & kevin clever cameos as nods to their brilliant turns in the original. I mean this was made in the 1990′s — its ripe for a remake. what took so long???
(and so i don’t get idiotic talkback from those of you who lack a sense of humor, yes this IS meant to be sarcastic.)
How about going with an Asian actress/singer instead of sticking to “black diva.” Funny that Beyonce already has a project with WB, she’d probably be a frontrunner for this. Jennifer Hudson will probably get a look too.
Name me one asian actress/singer who has any appeal in north america?
I think Charice would be incredible in this. She’s filipino and a protogee of David Foster and was featured more than once on Oprah. She also has a role on Glee and knocked it out of the park.
Um, isn’t that Charice girl a TEENAGER? How could you cast her playing opposite someone old enough to be a bodyguard, a man likely in his 30s, to be the LOVE INTEREST to a teenager. Yeah, that’s a ridiculous notion. Almost as ridiculous as thinking anyone would care to see that girl in a movie. No one’s here for Charice, sorry.
Charice?!? I’m sorry, but there are only about twenty million Pilipinas around the world who can do her shtick. And without Botoxing themselves into some odd idea of “acceptably attractive.”
Mr Really. I hope you were intending a compliment. Wasn’t sure what to make of it.
you know you set yourself up with your comment…not even Charice fans would suggest her to be in this film…I being a fan of hers.
Charice? why not? let’s give it a try for the most talented girl in the world. I bet she can learn acting really fast. she’s a fast learner. Her celebrity crush Justin Timberlake as her bodyguard… awww! hahahha! juz kiddin’. Naaaa! Charice is too young for the role and she needs to polish her acting skills first, she’s still a newbie remember? But just in case, it would really be a big challenge for her…. Good luck!
Name one Asian actress (that HolloWeird would consider) with her career or self esteem in the toilet who would even look at this project…I can’t think of one.
Warner Bros makes money, not films.
Why reboot old stuff?
To make money now.
“The Bodyguard”, a romantic buddy-film knock-off formula, sells.
You’ve got a new generation of female singers & potential hunk guys ready to plunk into the formula for another go at $.
“The goal is to take a young female singer with global appeal and give her the platform that The Bodyguard did Houston.” Cross-platform marketing at its finest. What studios do best now.
Throw in the same racial/sexual tension as the original, plus nicely choreographed violence, and a few of the diva’s songs, and Warner’s got a hit.
Not to mention the sweet diva-marketing deals the movie generates for both the singer and studio.
Criticize “The Bodyguard” all you want-lazy film-making, greedy studios, lack of creativity, what have you. If you think this, you’re dating yourself in the old ages of film-making.
Studios are businesses-always have been. Once upon a time, movie virtues like creative screenwriting, new ideas, artistic integrity, mattered to studios-as long as they enhanced profits. No longer.
The remake of “The Bodyguard” will make bank without the encumbrance of any virtues, save one: It’s a bankable formula whose time has come again.
well put and ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING
GJW- It’s actually hit or miss with the studios. They don’t know what the fuck they’re doing anymore. . if you know your history, the trend has always swayed back and forth.
right now-it’s films not remakes or sequels that are making money so check your shit pal.
this one actually is a little bit more interesting than some of the other remake ideas the old dinosaurs dig up.
Rhianna would kill it, me thinks. she’s the coolest of all those pop divas…
“right now-it’s films not remakes or sequels that are making money so check your shit pal”
I love morons who try so hard to pretend like they know what they are talking about.Of the top ten movies of 2010, five were sequels and two were reimagines of popular children tales, so you need to check your shit.The movies making money are remakes and sequels.
@Redmenace
Well, you’re partially correct but not really. The fact is there are really only a handful og people who make the money for the entire industry right now. If you look at the top ten you’ll see the same people propping up the decaying corpse that is Hollywood. Tim Burton, James Cameron (who made more money than anyone in 2010 – BTW), John Favreau, the John Lasseter and his acolytes at Disney & Pixar, Dreamworks animation, Will Smith, Speilberg and Bay. That’s pretty much the list. Everyone else lives off the money these guys make for everyone else. If they do a remake, great, if they make an original film also great.
BUT – a remake of The Bodyguard is fricking moronic. It was a crappy flick saved by the fact that it starred the biggest star in Hollywood and the biggest star in music back when being a star put fannies in the seats.
I forgot Chris Nolan. He’s also on that list.
Of all the comments made about remakes and studio creativity, this ^^ is the most truthful.
Yes, the studios have always been businesses, but they used to know how to make their money by offering audiences something new. The fact that studios are businesses does not excuse their creative bankruptcy and cannot be justified by their history.
And sure, adaptations and working from existing material has been part of the movies from the beginning, but please refer me to the era when the studios were re-making movies that weren’t even 20 years old. Did I miss the “Gone With the Wind” remake from 1959? Or the “Casablanca” remake from 1962? Or “Rebel Without a Cause” updated for a new generation of rebellious teens in 1975?
Please refer me to the era when the studios’ biggest-budget and highest-priority movies were based on board games and toys — or did I miss Warner Bros’ expensive “Hula Hoop” blockbuster from 1959? Or maybe Paramount big-budget spectacle “Slip’nSlide: The Movie” in 1962?
Please refer me to the era when the studios were ROUTINELY remaking foreign movies that weren’t even a year old.
The studios are creatively bankrupt and driven by fear and a complete inability to recognize and nurture original storytelling. This has nothing to do with business sense or the urge to make money. Studios used to make tons of money by telling original stories.
Well said, good sir!!
i hope you work in the industry.
“… please refer me to the era when the studios were re-making movies that weren’t even 20 years old.”
Actually, it has happened in EVERY era, dating back to silent films. The fact is, other than technological advances, filmmaking hasn’t really changed all that much since Birth of a Nation.
Successful films have often been remade (yes, in a less-than-20-year span)to either take advantage of new technology or a hot new star. Many silent classics were remade to take advantage of sound, like The Thief of Bagdad (1924 – Fairbanks Sr.) which was remade in 1940 (16 years later).
The brilliant comedy The Front Page (1931 – O’Brien/Menjou) was remade only NINE years later, in 1940, as His Girl Friday (Grant/Russel).
Garbo’s unforgettable Ninotcha (1939), was remade as the musical Silk Stockings in 1957 (18 years)to take advantage of the trend toward musicals and to take advantage of Cyd Charise’s smoking hot body and endless legs.
A Star is Born (1937- Gaynor/March — my favorite version, by the way), was first remade in 1954 with Garland/Mason, then remade AGAIN in 1976 (Streisand/Kristofferson). And now, to the consternation of film lovers everywhere, it is to be remade yet again starring the one whose name shall not be spoken.
Your overall point is valid, that this is an incredibly lazy, frightened generation of filmmakers. Nevertheless, remakes have ALWAYS been a part of the industry landscape and always will be. There is nothing wrong that, so long as the remake in some way adds a new element to the original.
For example, in Girl Friday, Howard Hawks changed the gender of two of the characters, thereby giving Rosalind Russell an incredible star turn as a female reporter at a time when few existed. It was genius move. I hope someone comes up an equally “genius move” for the Bodyguard remake.
LWN, you lament the passing of Hollywood’s creative Renaissance of original storytelling, when they (studios) “used to know how to make their money by offering audiences something new.”
I’m saying that the old era of “creative storytelling” is over.
The new business model is what I like to call, “Creative Storymarketing”.
Studios employ thousands of people. Making movies is serious business. Film financing, marketing, and distribution are evolving. Audiences, too, have changed. Like car manufacturers, major studios must market new products each year. Competition is fierce. Movie decisions must be made quickly and there’s little time for “creative nurturing”.
Creative Storymarketing is 21st century moviemaking. Match an existing market to a new or rebooted script. The old way of creative storytelling tried to match an original script to a market.
Warner’s remake of “The Bodyguard” is a good example of Hollywood’s hottest trend of “creative storymarketing”. Based on an existing film, Diva in distress, her songs, sexual tension, action drama…these are the elements of the story.
Warner knows the target demographics even before the film’s made. The rebooted script will creatively market this story to the prime demo.
All this takes plenty of creativity!
Think of Creative Storymarketing like a hedge fund. It’s the studio’s way to hedge their moviemaking investment risk.
Film-making with Creative Storymarketing may seem to lack originality. But it gets the job done, and for those thousands who depend on these films for their livelihood, that’s good enough.
“Give people what they want” sums up Creative Storymarketing. Identify a market, then craft a story-or reboot an old one- to market what they want.
Creative storytelling during the “Golden Age of Hollywood” was good.
Creative Storymarketing in today’s golden age of cross-brand marketing is better.
Very thoughtful analysis, gjw.
Thank you.
Thanks Stephie!
HolloWeird is HolloWeird. Wouldn’t it be nice to sit with the contracted actors of days gone by and really get the story you’ve missed?
this is an awesome idea. They should also remake Inception, The Town, The Departed, Police Academy 5 — the one in Russia, and then do a remake of the remake of Bodyguard.
T.I playing John McClane in the Die Hard Remake thinks this is a bad idea. Nicki Minaj in a re imagining of Pretty In Pink thinks this is a bad idea.
I stared at this for two minutes and my nose started to bleed.
If they HAVE to do this I’m hoping they at least switch things up. Maybe Timberlake protected by Zoe Saldana.
funny
Or Justin Beiber protected by Natalie Portman, so you have the whole underage romance NOTES ON A SCANDAL thing going on.
i know you’re joking. but this would be brilliant. natalie portman was awesome in The Professional. –but i am so not into black swan –women cat fighting over a sh*tty guy with a lisp.
I like how you think. She should carry HIM in the poster. LOL.
@Thomas
They should switch the genders of the main characters. Like, Justin Bieber as the singer, and Michelle Rodriguez as the bodyguard.
THIS IS A GREAT IDEA AN I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE IT!!! I KNO MY QUEEN BEE WILL SLAY THIS ROLE!!! SO ALL YOU HATERS CAN FUCK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FAIL!!!!
This is a stupid idea.
… an Iraq veteran comes back to discover Twitter & TMZ and protects a singer??? Who is writing this shit, an 18 year old?
So this must be where the dart landed this week.
I think Willow Smith would be a good choice for the diva.
Ke$ha and Zac Galifnakis
How does one become “a former Iraqi war veteran”? Time travel?
And: “It becomes the second music-driven remake for the studio, which just got a commitment from Clint Eastwood to direct Beyonce.” In… what?
In a groundbreaking career move, Beyonce has agreed to sign over all of her life decisions to Warner Bros, and Clint Eastwood has agreed to film whatever executives command her to do.
this will only work if beyonce peels off about 30 pounds.
All I can say is “REALLY?”
Who is the “creative force” behind this death defying risk taking decision, the fearless executive who is really putting his personal stamp on the studio?!…
God — it is not even worth the rant.
Those writers are no joke. They’ll take a camp cheese classic, make it smarter and more fun.
I think Rihanna and Channing are the best choice for this.
I can’t even imagine how this can capture the magic of the 1992 movie. Not much was expected of the film, but somehow Costner/Houston sold it. Of course, Whitney’s killer tunes – struck a chord — esp the unexpected remake of I Will Always… You can’t orchestrate that kind of magic. If only it were that easy.
there’s already a great movie out there with this premise… sans the love story, which no doubt will devolve into a Hollywood cliche by the time this makes it’s unfortunate appearance on the silver screen. That movie is called “Taken.” Filmed with undoubtedly 1/4 of the budget this atrocity will require, it will no doubt be more remembered than yet another reboot of franchises and films that are fine just the way they are… in our hearts and memories.
Enough already, Hollywood. There ARE new ideas out there. Find them.
Good news for Dan Lin – he seems to get a lot of projects off the ground, which as we all know is very hard…bad news, they all look potentially quite completely horrible.
Why remake a classic movie…..and honestly- who can take the place of whitney?? And cheesing it up with twitter…really? there’s a reason it did so well the first time- it was a new story for people to enjoy!! Make a movie with some originality instead of wasting money to remake something that can’t get better.
Nick and Jeremiah are awesome writers. This definitely sounds promising… I’ll be there.
How do these people sleep at night?
Comfortably on top of mountains of cash with bubbling glasses of underpaid screenwriters tears on their nightstands.
This just reminds me of how sad Whitney Houston became. I understand she can’t even sing right anymore, even if she has cleaned up. The damage is done. I’ve seen it way too many times with too many people.
Miley Cyrus as the rough tough bodyguard, Mike Tyson as the diva songstress in drag who needs protection. Should make a fortune.
exactly! i just suggested something similar. get waters to direct it, then turn it into a musical in five years..they’ll make a mint!
kidding of course
Hilarious….Sounds like a good Disney movie!
gjw – nailed it perfectly…seems like you took the words right out of Ryan Kavanaugh’s mouth.
Jeff Robinov is a GENIUS! Remake old and not very good movies with name recognition and maybe no one will realize that without a new Harry Potter next year that Robionov has no idea how to pick or make movies.
We’re going to reboot, reimagine and remake all eight of the Harry Potter movies with Jaden Smith replacing Daniel Radcliffe. No reason Harry can’t be black. A new generation of children will grow up with the new and improved Harry Potter. This is why my studio is the best studio in town. Always was and always will be.